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Smuttynose & Portsmouth Brewery E-mail

October 2011

News from Smuttynose & the Portsmouth Brewery

Dear Badassbeer,

Sharpen your rakes and shave the pills off your sweaters; Autumn is in the air!

Early Autumn brings waves of excitement rippling through the craft beer world. A diverse, exciting slate of seasonal beers come to the market, of course, but one of the biggest events on the beer calendar shifts everyone’s focus to Denver, Colorado. The Great American Beer Festival begins today, celebrating its 30th Anniversary. "The Super Bowl of beer festivals" offers the largest collection of American craft beer anywhere in the world, at any one time (over 2400 different beers from over 450 breweries, will be available during the festival run) including selections from Smutty and Portsmouth.

The Portsmouth Brewery has participated in the GABF every year since at least 2004, picking up three medals in that time frame: two silvers and one bronze. Smuttynose last medalled in 2005, taking a gold for the debut batch of Wheat Wine Ale. Smuttynose hasn’t entered the festival since 2006 but we’re very excited to be back as one of only 14 New England breweries pouring on the festival floor. Here’s what we’ll be pouring:

Portsmouth Brewery is also sending bottles of Flanders Red for judging and Smuttynose has thrown 2007 Scotch Ale, as well as, Wheat Wine Ale and Baltic Porter into the hunt for hardware. Results will be announced on October 1 both in person and online. If either of us win anything, we’ll announce the news on our Facebook pages, which you should "like" if you haven’t already. They are linked below.

Thank you for taking your time to read our newsletter. We appreciate your interest in what we do.

Smuttynose Tours are Fridays at 3pm and Saturdays at 11am. Our tour lasts about an hour and a complimentary tasting is included. Please call ahead (603-426-4026) for groups of 8 or more.

Portsmouth Brewery Tours are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 3pm. Visitors will receive a coupon for a half-priced sampler paddle.

Now, for some housekeeping. We don’t want to clutter up anyone’s inboxes, so we cull our mailing list from time to time. If you don’t wish to receive this newsletter, please click on the unsubscribe link at the top of this page. (Not clicking "confirm" doesn’t automatically unsubscribe you.)

Portsmouth Brewery News

Notes From The Mash Tun

Tod and Tyler are very excited for the little bit of wiggle room in their production schedule that comes with Autumn’s arrival. The small slowdown means they’re able to brew beers that may take a little bit longer than two weeks. Fall also brings some unusual ingredients and some new yeast strains.

The most seasonally-dependent beers we brew are Hop Harvest #1 and Hop Harvest #2. Both versions of the beer start off with the same grain bill, (which also provides the basis for Murphy’s Law Red Ale) that merely serves as a base for copious amounts of from-the-vine-to-the-kettle hops which impart a range of unique grassy, juicy and fruity flavors not found in the dried hops we use for the rest of our beers. HH1 (a 7 barrel single brew) uses wet Chinook hops from John Bloomberg’s farm in Vassalboro, Maine while HH2 (a 14 barrel double brew) uses 120 pounds of fresh Citra hops from BT Loftus Ranches in Yakima, WA. Both batches are on tap now, but don’t delay, they move through our taps pretty quickly.

The bearded ones are brewing a second "gourd-geous" beer this fall. The newest release in a seasonal rotation of saisons, Saison d’Automne, will be brewed with pumpkins, squash and peppercorns.

We’ve just tapped the first of two serving tanks of Octoberfest. This classic maerzen is one of the few lager beers we brew and one of only two or three that we filter.

A batch of our 2010 Great American Beer Festival silver medal winning Rye Not is almost done fermenting while batches of Smoked Dunkel Weizen, Biere de Garde, and Wheat Wine are on deck.

We’d also like to share our heartfelt wishes of congratulations with Tyler and his fiancee Rachel, who will be getting married in early October. He still hasn’t forgiven the Brewers Association for scheduling the Great American Beer Festival during his wedding;much like Rachel wouldn’t forgive him for trying to fit in a quick trip to Denver.

Until next time, Happy Ales to You!

The People Have Spoken…

Glossy local food magazine, Taste of the Seacoast, has released its "Best of Taste of the Seacoast 2011 Awards." Determined by a thorough Readers’ Poll, we were fortunate enough to be recognized eight times in various categories. To say that we appreciate such vocal fans and their votes would be an understatement. We do our best to provide a delicious, fun and relaxing environment at 56 Market Street, so there’s nothing like a readers’ poll to provide a great barometer for how well we’re doing.

Thank you all very much!

We were named Best Bar Food, Best Beer Selection, and Best Brew Pub. Donna Marcotte was a runner-up for Best Bartender while the entire establishment was mentioned in the same capacity for Best Bar, Best Business Lunch, Best Chili and Best Late Night Menu.

Sunday Mornings with Hans and Kelley

As the mornings get more crisp and the sunlight dwindles, you won’t find a better place to ignore the elements on a Sunday than the Jimmy LaPanza Lounge for our Beerunch. Our self-serve format means you can go from the door to eating in under three minutes. Our fresh brunch buffet offers sweet, savory and vegetarian choices and there’s always an assortment of house-made pastries. Beerunch costs only $7.50 per plate and you won’t have to wait!

We’ll also tap a new beer each week. The beer could be a cask-conditioned pin that we brewed, the latest Smuttynose Big Beer or a rarity from one our region’s newest breweries.

Beer Writers in a New England Brewpub

Go ahead, judge it by its cover; it’s an attractive cover.

We are excited to announce our next beer social, which will take place on Thursday, November 3. We’ll be hosting writer Joshua M. Bernstein (Gourmet magazine, Imbibe magazine) as he tours around the United States promoting his new book Brewed Awakening: Behind The Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution. The social will feature a question and answer exchange between Joshua and our own Peter Egelston, who knows a few things about the Craft Beer Revolution himself. Both of these men are articulate and entertaining, so you won’t want to miss the insightful main event. We will have copies of Brewed Awakening for sale and signature during the event.

November 3rd also happens to be International Stout Day and the food and beer pairings will be predicated on this point.

If you’d like to read some of our guest’s other work, here’s an archive of some pieces he’s done for Gourmet magazine. We’ll be announcing ticket sales via our Facebook page and through an e-blast, though a Luddite faction of our staff are making a push for actual paper signs to be posted in the pub.

Small Plates

-Our Beer Garden will be open until Columbus Day (October 10), as long as the weather cooperates.

-Manager Ben Bilodeau and Bartender Anthony Cormier will be representing us at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. We hope these two get a chance to cross the stage, shake hands with Charlie Papazian and bring some bling back to Portsmouth.

–Dean Warden, our newly-named Bar Chef (sorry Ray Foley), has been tasked with bringing more of a craft cocktail influence to mixed drink offerings. He’s already offered a Celery Julep and we should see more creative bitters, homemade syrups and infusions in the near future. Dean also helped coordinate a few some recent changes to our spirit selection; we now offer Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Bulleit Rye Whiskey and the barrel-aged 10Cane Rum.

-We closed the Brewery early on Monday, September 12 for a staff appreciation party which was well attended despite The Patriots season-opening, Dolphin-crushing appearance on Monday Night Football.

-Congratulations to Quinn Prell, a now-former manager of the Portsmouth Brewery. Quinn worked his way up from the kitchen and into management and has recently moved to the West Coast for a new adventure.

Downtown, Underground Food Specials

Weekly Specials Downstairs in the Jimmy LaPanza Lounge…

Sundays:

Cheap Chicken Wings – a half dozen for $3; a full dozen for $5

Mondays:

Cheap Chicken Wings – a half dozen for $3; a full dozen for $5.

Tuesdays:

One Dollar Taco Night – Tacos filled with your choice of shredded chicken, ground beef or vegetarian for a buck a piece.

Wednesdays:

One Dollar Meatball Sliders

Thursdays:

Parking Violation Night and $2 Dogs- if you bring in your parking ticket and a payment, we’ll mail it for you and give you a pint. We offer tofu pups and large hot dogs, with buttered and toasted buns and a range of toppings including chili, sauerkraut, relishes and mustards.

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Parties

The LaPanza Lounge is a fantastic spot for your special events and holiday parties. Reservations for holiday parties are already filling up, so don’t hesitate to contact Donna Marcotte, our Functions Coordinator, for more information or reservations.

Smuttynose News

What Do You Do When You Grow Twice As Fast As You Planned?

2011 has been an unbelievable year for Smuttynose Brewing Company. Our brewers, bottlers and keggers have been working incredibly hard to keep up with demand that has seen us ship just under 1000 barrels less than last year’s total production in just 9 months of 2011. Even though we’ve made expansions every year for the last three, we still haven’t had the capacity to keep up this year (thanks to all of you!).

A temporary solution to this capacity shortage was to brew three large batches of Old Brown Dogand virtually all of ourPumpkin Ale off-site at FX Matt in Utica, NY (http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110729-NEWS-110729743). Though the offsite capacity was helpful, there’s really nothing better than the "home-brewed" OBD, so we’ve worked out a better solution…

We’re pleased to announce yet another expansion to our Heritage Avenue brewery in Portsmouth. Initial work is already underway to make room for three new 200-barrel fermenters and another 200-barrel bright beer tank, all built by JV Northwest of Canby, Oregon. These new tanks should give us an additional 9,300 more barrels, or over 2.3 million pints, per year For those of you that have visited us for a tour, these new tanks will be installed just on the other side of our four horizontal bright beer tanks, in a space that’s currently home to flat case boxes, flat six packs and several other types of packaging materials. These materials will be moved to an off-site storage facility. The expansion should be online by the beginning of 2012.

Please rest assured that this expansion in our current plant does NOT in any way, shape or form affect our new brewery project at Towle Farm. All the delays on our new brewery have been financial in nature. As you might guess, it’s a tricky time to secure large loans.

New Beers

Note: Bottle is a prototype. Actual bottle will look much cooler.

We are glad to announce our newest Short Batch beer that’s also our first collaboration: SATCHMO. Stylistically a brown porter, Satchmo is one of the few commercially-available beers brewed with fungi from two different phylum: brewer’s yeast (sacchromyces cerevisiae) and black trumpet mushrooms (craeterellus cornucopioides).

We expect Satchmo to finish around 5% abv. It’ll be available on draft at the Black Trumpet, in a cask for NERAX North and for the first time ever, in cage-and-cork finished bottles for sale here at Smuttynose. We’ll be releasing more information through our Facebook page as these events come closer.

Smuttynose Winter Ale will begin shipping to select markets (ie New Jersey) in mid-October. This unique winter seasonal release is stylistically reminiscent of a Belgian Dubbel, but it’s not meant to replicate the style. Dark garnet in color, a blend of caramel malts and Belgian candi sugar impart a rich sweetness that evokes the taste of brown sugar, raisins, plums and currants. Our house Belgian yeast strain imparts a spiciness that offsets the fruit character, while a low 5.1% abv makes this beer near session strength.

What’s lean, strong and brown? Our current Big Beer Series release, Gravitation, that’s what! The 2011 vintage of our Belgian Quad tips the scales at a 12.5% abv. It is slightly stronger than last year’s model but paradoxically dear readers, it’s more drinkable. Dave changed the recipe, halving the additions of caramel malts and raisin paste to lighten the chewy body that highlighted the previous two releases. A special Belgian yeast adds subtle banana esters to the nose. Gravitation should be appearing on shelves at your local Big Beer seller as you read this. For more information about this Big Beer Release, please visit our Brewer’s Notes blog.

Intern Updates

We’re pleased to welcome Corey Cramer to Smuttynose as our newest intern. Corey comes to us from Portsmouth’s own Coat of Arms Pub where he began bringing in some newer craft beers to sit alongside their line-up of typical British pub choices. Corey will get a taste of all the different aspects of production brewing during his six weeks with us.

Sales Administrator Renee Thomas is looking for a new intern. Applicants must be at least 21 years old, currently enrolled in a local college or university and majoring in Business, Marketing or Hospitality. The ideal candidate will have a flexible schedule to be available for opportunities in both the afternoon and night. Interested parties should send a resume and cover letter to renee@smuttynose.com. Serious inquiries only, please.

Something Old, Something New, Something Bottled, Something Brewed

If you poke around enough (and dust a little bit) in the proper corner of our warehouse, you’ll find our Big Beer Archive. In 2005, we began saving limited amounts of each Big Beer Series release. The initial plan was to have a few years of back stock so that we could offer a range of vintage, brewery-aged Big Beers in the pub at our new brewery. Six years and four possible locations later, we’ve found ourselves with a larger archive than we expected.

We’ll begin selling a changing selection of vintage Big Beer bottles, exclusively in our retail nook. The bottles will be priced at $12.50 each and the selection will change, as different vintages sell through. Offering a good mix of choices is very important to us and we’ll be updating the selections on our Facebook page.

The Road Goes On Forever and The Smutty Never Ends

Our sales staff, hard-working sons-of-guns that they are, do their best to plan or participate in the best events around; so get off your tuchus and join in the fun! Here are a few selections from our Events Calendar.

October 1 – Portsmouth, NH; Farewell to the Memorial Bridge. Celebrate 88 years of revolutionary design as we send the oldest link between Kittery, ME and Portsmouth, NH off in style. We’re sponsoring the beer garden and pouring Pumpkin Ale and Finest Kind IPA.

October 2 – Rye, NH; The Great Bay Oyster Festival at the Seacoast Science Center. Are there two things better suited than oysters and Robust Porter? Probably not, which is why you should go see Renee and use your money to help raise funds for oyster bed restoration in Great Bay.

October 7 – Providence, RI; Beervana. Part of Providence Craft Beer Week, Smutty will be repping big time with some killer vintage beer as well as some newer goodies that you won’t see anywhere else. Not only that, but our very own David Yarrington will be giving a seminar, From Brain to Glass, that will delve into the creative process of Smuttynose.

October 8 – Durham, NC; The World Beer Fest at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Robby and Renee are heading to God’s Country to pour Finest Kind and Star Island Single for thousands of thirsty Tar Heels.

October 15 – Portsmouth, NH; New Hampshire Brew Fest at RedHook Ale Brewery. All proceeds from this festival benefit the scholarship fund of the New England District of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. We’ll be pouring Maibock, Big A and Homunculus. A very special guest will be on hand that all of you will recognize.

Powered By Beer!

That’s what you’ll find woven into the neck of our brand new Team Smuttynose cycling jerseys! With a Victorian fancy lad on the front and our Star Island Single mermaid on the back, this nautical-themed garment will surely impress your fellow cyclists as you whizz past them in the peloton.

They’re made in Massachusetts and are available in our webstore, or in person at Portsmouth Brewery and Smuttynose.

A Final Note of Congratulations…

To Joe Grotto, our Southern New England Field Sales Manager, who wed his long-time sweetheart Krista, on September 10. We wish them overflowing happiness for the rest of their natural lives and look forward to this year’s Smuttynose Christmas party, when we’ll ask her for embarrassing stories about Joe.

A Concise History of the Samuel Haley HouseYou’ve seen the Samuel Haley House on the Shoals Pale Ale label for years. Local Historian J. Dennis Robinson has constructed as thorough a history of this durable home as he can. The resulting narrative is yet another interesting piece of Shoals lore.

If you’re looking for great locally-sourced food in our area, everything you need is here. If you don’t live near us, find a local food organization near you and enjoy fresh, natural food on your dinner table.